The Staff Shelf: Fact & Fiction
What are booksellers reading?
When we walk into a bookstore, the first place we go is the staff recommendation shelves—it’s how you get a quick sense of the personality of the store. The very best bookstores are merely a reflection of the eclectic, deeply felt opinions of the book-lovers who work there. As part of our Interview with a Bookstore, we asked the staff at the best bookstore in Big Sky country (Fact & Fiction) what to read.
SLIDESHOW: Fact & Fiction Books Staff Shelf
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- TESS FAHLGREN (BOOKSELLER) RECOMMENDS: D’Ambrosio brings together stories and experiences seemingly unrelated. His subject matter swings from an episode of domestic violence to a reflection on family based around a collection of items he keeps with him. With ease, D’Ambrosio braids ideas and occurences into enlightening and insightful looks at what it means to be human.
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- TESS FAHLGREN (BOOKSELLER) RECOMMENDS: Hugo’s advice is insightful, funny and thoroughly lovely. In the introduction, he writes, “I don’t know why we do it. We must be crazy. Welcome, fellow poet.” With every inspiring sentence, Hugo affirms the writers’ insane passion and urges us to, please, carry on.
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- TESS FAHLGREN (BOOKSELLER) RECOMMENDS: With J.D. Salinger an omnipresent, off-the-page character, Rakoff struggles with identifying as an artist in NYC and the demands of her new job at a prestigious literary agency. The memoir comes to a close around a close reading of Franny and Zooey, and a reminder of why we care so much about Salinger’s classic works.
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- CHLOE REYNOLDS (BOOKSELLER) RECOMMENDS: This book is an incredible biography of one of the most influential photojournalists of our time. Huffman deals well with complicated story lines as the book crosses from Europe to Africa and the Middle East, all the while maintaining a kind of aesthetic standard that is present in much of Hetherington’s work. “Here I Am” is a truly inspiring work that gives an entirely new perspective on acts of war.
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- CHLOE REYNOLDS (BOOKSELLER) RECOMMENDS: When Quoyle’s life begins to unravel, he returns to his ancestors’ home in Newfoundland in search of a fresh start. What he discovers about himself gives him a new perspective on the impact that a place and the forces of nature can have on a person, or even an entire bloodline. “The Shipping News” is a beautifully written, darkly humorous story about belonging and the often surprising nature of love.
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- LAUREN KORN (BOOKSELLER) RECOMMENDS: One of the best examples of outstanding character development and empathetic (not to mention energetic) storytelling I’ve read – ever. Readers of Ghana Must Go will fall to pieces at Selasi’s tale of an African family’s journey, in America, to understand and reconcile a father’s lapse in judgment and the subsequent effects the moment has on each of its members. A book of redemption and forgiveness.
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- LAUREN KORN (BOOKSELLER) RECOMMENDS: Marra writes with an astounding sense of place, and Constellation’s imagery is often playful, always beautiful. Sporadic but aptly-placed one-liners provide this sobering story with a humor that should not only be appreciated but should also be savored and remembered; they complement Marra’s fully realized storyline and the relationships between his characters, who, in many cases, are written as being morally ambiguous.
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- LAUREN KORN (BOOKSELLER) RECOMMENDS: I am enamored. Sally Mann’s memoir has thrown me, head over heels, into the Southern imagery and characters that inspired (and inspires) her art. Mann’s writing is just as powerful and beautiful as her photographs, and readers, I promise you: you will devour every page. Not since Patti Smith’s ‘Just Kids’ have I felt so affected by an artist’s memoir.
Fact & Fiction is located at 220 N Higgins, Missoula, MT 59802.
